Snooker and Pool win first medal in Shield

Records tumbled at the first inter-university pool tournament of the year as a new-look Imperial team pulled off some stunning wins and overcame bad luck (and hangovers) to earn their first ever medal in the Southern England Univesities Pool Council Team Shield event. The team set off early Saturday morning from Paddington, and spirits were high as we made the arduous journey towards sunny Weston-Super-Mare. With three new members to the team, team captain Rob had some head scratching to do in the run up to the tournament as to how to field his eager players, using the journey to make sure all were up to speed on tournament rules and regulations.

We arrived at the venue with time to spare, and as Rob went off to the captains meeting, the team looked at the schedule to discover the identities of their opponents in the first round of individuals tournament. After some waiting around, the matches began and the three new members, Aaron, Charles and Linus all managed to see off their first-round opponents with ease (with Aaron defeating a University College London (UCL) 1sts team member, point 1 to Imperial), while Captain Rob proved his own worth to the team by crashing out in spectacular fashion, along with the President of the society, Cheng “so good they named him twice” Cheng. In the last sixty-four, the standard of play was much better and both Linus and Aaron were defeated in extremely tight matches, with Aaron playing a sloppy frame to hand his opponent victory. However, Charles was making a great first impression on his debut university pool tournament and steamed through to the next round with some unbelievable play and a touch of alcohol induced luck. A winner’s medal was not to be though, as in the next round he faced a very handy player from Southampton who had previously dispatched the 3rd seed for the tournament. With his opponent blatantly stealing Charlie’s patented “drink between the shots” method, the dye was cast and Chaz was sent packing. However, he can hold his head high with an excellent debut performance.

Next up was the team event, with our group made up of UCL 1sts, Oxford 2nds and University of East Anglia 3rds. First up was Oxford, and after racing into a 4-0 lead with some fine play from Aaron playing at number 1 and Charles at number 3, we were pegged back to 5-4 to set up a tense finalé. Captain Rob finally (in his second outing) showed some mettle and took the winning frame to give us a 6-4 win and a great start to the tournament. Next up were UEA 3rds, and a much less dramatic match ended with us as runaway 6-1 winners, with Aaron the only player in the team winning every frame so far, something he frequently mentioned to his teammates to help their spirits. With play over for the day, the team played some friendly frames with other universities and made excellent use of the cider and Guinness stocked bar to let off some steam.

Sunday arrived, and the team made its way to the tables for a London showdown of epic proportions. With the last UCL – Imperial match ending at 6-1 to us, UCL were out for revenge. Charles and Aaron were up first, and after Charles lost a very tight game (against a player who finished 4th in the overall singles tournament), Aaron brought it back. 1-1. Linus followed, and another tight frame went UCLs way. 2-1. Each team continued to trade frames until UCL took the advantage when they managed to inflict a first loss on the “mighty” (to use his own words) Aaron, a “massive” (again his words) blow. 5-3 was the score with both Rob and Cheng needing to win their frames to avoid defeat.

It was not to be, and UCL managed to convert their lead to a 6-3 win, meaning that after starting the day as top of the group, Imperial dropped to 3rd place based on frames conceded and head-to-head. This meant that we qualified for the Team shield event, and our next match was against Southampton 2nds, a very worthy opponent. Another no nonsense performance from the team and we finished 6-3 winners, with Rob tying up the match with a simple (although he strongly claims it wasn’t) black.

The semi-final was upon us, and with it came a very winnable match against Essex 2nds. A shocking start to the match, which saw both the dependable Aaron and Linus throw away their frames and Essex race into a 2-0 lead. Rob and Charles then brought it back with some tidy play and we were right back in it at 2-2. Unfortunately the team then fell apart, with easy frames slipping through our fingers and we eventually lost 6-3. While disappointed not to reach the final, the entire team can hold their heads up as they bring home the first Imperial pool team medals of the season (and ever).